Author Archive

The following exchange was between myself and my friend Amy. Amy is from New Jersey. We attended middle school and high school together.

“Have you ever had any strange experiences with technology, like your laptop or phone, that you think may have been linked to paranormal activity?”

“I went to one of those profanity houses and there was one that was boarded up because a ghost supposedly lives there. It was super cold inside and gave me a weird feeling. I went in June I believe, so it was super hot outside but cold in the house. After I got home my phone didn’t work. The picture would fade down my phone into white gradually, and on the occasion I could actually open my phone, it would open apps and type randomly without me doing anything but holding the phone.”

“When you say the picture would fade down your phone into white, do you mean you would try to look at a picture you took and your screen would just go white?”

“Like the whole screen would fade to white. It would start at the top as the picture and about a fourth of the way down just fade into a white screen.”

“Do you remember where the profanity house was? Did you go with other people?”

“It was in New Jersey somewhere. I was with my sister Lisa, Cody and Louie.”

“How long were you there?”

“We were only outside the house for maybe 5 minutes max.”

“Wow. Thank you so much!”

Amy has never had any previous problems with her phone. She suspects the ghost that supposedly lives in the house has a way of disrupting technology, therefore explaining why her phone went blank.

Collected by Natasha HunterPosted Friday, 2nd of March 2018 at 03:44:03 AM

The following conversation is between myself (referred to as “N”) and a family friend (referred to as “L”).

N: Where exactly are you from again?

L: Paraguay.

N: Paraguay?

L: South America.

N: Are there like, kind of traditions, or ghost stories or anything?

L: Yes, we have two language, this is the first and then we have… we have two language. We speak Spanish and we speak Guarani; is like a native language. But in most of the other countries its like a… its a dialect, but in my country you studied in the school. You have to read all the same like another’s language, so most the people speak both. In the city, people speak Spanish and Guarani like ‘Spanglish’ they say here, but most in other areas of my country speak like 90% only Guarani. And this is the first tradition we have, like, and we have so many foods that is only you can find in Paraguay, like you know the soup? Here the soup is like you can eat with a spoon. In my country Paraguayan soup is like a cake. They have the history too. The first president invited another president for the South America, and the lady who is cooking is putting too much corn, um, flour and they makes too hard the soup so that way they call it Paraguayan soup, like that. But its different. You know, like when people go in my country and say, “you want a soup?” And they, “Yes!” and you waiting for something like, and they bring like a, its like a corn cake, you say like “this is a soup. Yes, this a Paraguayan soup”. So… and what else you want, like…

N: Um, I was wondering if you had any, like, when you grew up, were you told any like traditional ghost stories, um kind of like to teach little kids lessons or anything. Like, were there any just like traditional ghost stories?

L: Ghost, like, yeah, we have, like, yeah so many.

N: Really?

L: So many. When we are kids, like moms say to… in my country most the people sleeping like 1-3, like nap, and the parents so the kids won’t go outside, they say is like one… guy… but then people say, somebody people say they saw this already, some people say that its like a myth like it don’t seem so real. But if you google him and you found like a Paraguayan ghost you’re gunna see so many they have all Guarani names. One of them is Pombero. One another is like… its hard to say in English because its in Guarani, but Yasy Yataré is the name. So its like uh three or four of them. One is coming out in the night. One is coming out, its like in the afternoon.

N: During like the napping periods?

L: Yes! Napping periods is for the kids. That little guy is looking for kids, they say. The other one in the night, if you whistling, like they coming at you. You have to leave a cigarette outside, and then like cigarette and then like um liquor. And its funny, but if you live there, next day you don’t find anymore. Okay?

N: Oh okay.

L: So most the people, its not doing in the city, this is all like people have a farm around the city.

N: Okay, so its not in the city?

L: Its not in the, in the city most the people just doesn’t believe in that, you know its different. It’s the same, you go here in New Year and its like too crazy and around, in here, more quietly, so you can know so many different things. But when we go in Paraguay, this is one dog is in the night, its only, they say it’s a black dog, its like a wolf, eat people, you know, so many. But if you… I never, never see that, but I just realized one… my uncle leave the cigarette outside and the next day, it, the cigarette… I don’t know if my uncle taken it back in, but its now not there. And you can hear the whistle, that one is the most funny. You can hear like when, in the night… if the guy doesn’t like you, they bother you with a whistle.

N: So the guy is the one who whistles?

L: Mhm.

N: Oh okay.

L: And that is the most that people say. When you are in the night outside, like they say, don’t whistle! Don’t whistle! Because this is the form that you call him. And if you, your wife is pregnant, and he take her, your wife. Like if she walking outside by herself, he always sees, like, take her.

N: and that’s only at night?

L: Only at night. And if you don’t leave the liquor and the cigarette outside, he’s mad at you. Okay? So he destroys something of your house. He kill your animals. If you have chickens, cow outside, he do something with your animals. You know, he is doing something to let you know, like why you don’t leave him what always needed? And the kids one is like is a little guy… they show the picture of people being is like that, its ugly! Its like a little kids, its like blonde hair but she’s walking like this…

N: Like on all fours?

L: Yeah, so when the kids is going nap time outside they always looking for him because they’re alone. No parents, no nobody around them and supposed he take them with him and kill them, yeah? But we have so many mythological, like ideas, but if you google in and put in like a Paraguayan, you gunna see so many, and you gunna have the pictures there, but we have, yeah. We have.

N: Thank you so much!

L: No problem!

N: Thank you.

It was so interesting learning about the ghosts children in a different country were told about so that they wouldn’t go and do something they weren’t supposed to. For example, in America children grow up scared of the Boogie Monster with their parents saying, “you better not do that or else the Boogie Monster will come and find you.” Whereas in Paraguay, there is this man who resembles an animal by walking on all fours, and the children are scared he’ll take them if they go wandering outside late at night. I got chills listening to my family friend tell this story.

Collected by Natasha HunterPosted Sunday, 9th of April 2017 at 10:31:02 PM

The following conversation is between myself (referred to as “N”) and my friend, Jenna (referred to as “J”). For reference, Jenna is from Long Island, and the bridge discussed below is the Northern State overpass located on Sweet Hollow Road in Melville in New York state.

N: Does the town that you’re from have any traditions or places that are supposedly haunted.

J: There’s this bridge, uh and the legend is, its that a school bus fell off and then like landed into the underpass. So what happens is that, there’s like a bunch of creepy things that have happened around this bridge. And I think that if you stop underneath it, a cop will come up to you and like knock on your window, but like its on a dirt road, like you literally like wouldn’t be able to… like it would make no sense why a cop would be there, so like the cop’s a ghost.

N: Oh my god.

L: I think the bus one’s creepier because the kids fell off, and like what happens is if you go there and you stop your car underneath the bridge, they’re supposed to push you forward. Cause they’re like trying to save you.

N: So a bus full of kids actually, like, fell off?

L: I mean, that’s like the urban legend of it.

N: Have you ever experienced that?

L: No. My friends went there and they said that like they just got spooked so quickly. And like something supernatural might have happened, or like it might have just been in their minds, but like, regardless it scared the s*** out of them and they haven’t gone back since. And they asked me to go and I was like, I would rather die than experience that first hand.

After some research, I found that Sweet Hollow Road is known for paranormal activity and ghost sightings. The stories Jenna mentioned are only two of the five stories associated with Sweet Hollow Road. The bus full of children is explained in good detail above, however the story about the ghost cop is that a police officer was shot and killed under the bridge. Supposedly, if you turn to watch the cop walk away, you’ll see him get shot in the back of the head and then disappear. Other stories include three boys who hung themselves with some drivers reporting having seen the bodies when they drive under the bridge, as well as a “white lady” named Mary who either jumped or was kicked out of her boyfriend’s car and was then hit by the car behind them on the Northern State overpass bridge. With regard to the legend about the bus, if you put your car in neutral, the kids from the bus will apparently push you forward to save you from harms way. What is even more interesting about this legend is that the underpass is inclined, so if anything the car would move backwards instead of forward.

Collected by Natasha HunterPosted Sunday, 9th of April 2017 at 10:28:59 PM